Measuring patient temperature is a common first step in diagnosing illnesses. Physicians commonly use a variety of methods for determining patient temperature, including, for example, obtaining temperature measurements with a thermometer. While thermometers utilizing mercury have been in existence for many years, modern thermometers typically employ one or more electronic sensors configured to measure patient temperature. Such sensors may take one or more measurements over a relatively short period of time. Based on these measurements, the thermometer may generate a predicted internal and/or core temperature of the patient. In generating this predicted temperature, it is common practice to insert at least a portion of the thermometer into a cover prior to taking temperature measurements. Known thermometers may then sense the ambient temperature of a body cavity of the patient, and may use this sensed ambient temperature in determining a patient's core temperature.
However, determining a patient's core temperature as described above can produce inaccurate results. For example, due to inherent variations in the manufacturing process, the covers utilized with such thermometers often have thicknesses that vary within a certain tolerance range. Although the variations in probe cover thickness can be a source of significant error in the core temperature determination, it can be difficult and expensive to manufacture probe covers within a relatively narrow thickness tolerance range. Thus, in an effort to minimize the effect of such error, modern thermometers may utilize algorithms that make predetermined estimates to compensate for these thickness variations. Compensating for such variations in this way may, however, introduce additional error into the core temperature determination, thereby further reducing the accuracy of such determinations.
Such thermometers are typically not configured to determine a variety of other conditions that contribute to the accuracy of the temperature determination. For instance, such thermometers are generally not configured to determine whether a probe cover has been installed thereon, or, once a probe cover has been installed, whether the installed probe cover is of an appropriate type. Additionally, such thermometers are not typically configured to determine a proximity to the body cavity or other measurement site of the patient, which measurement site is being utilized for the temperature measurement, or an insertion depth of the thermometer at the measurement site. Since known thermometers are not configured to determine such additional conditions, the algorithms utilized in the core temperature determination are limited in their sensitivity.
The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are directed toward overcoming the deficiencies described above.